INSTRUCTION FOR AUTHORS

General information
Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering is a purely academic and non‐profit
international journal publishing original articles describing significant, novel and
frontier developments in the area of structural and civil engineering. The scope of
subjects considered is broad, and without being exhaustive includes the up-to-date
progress and development in structural, hydraulic, geotechnical and bridge
engineering. FSCE also promotes and reports the interdisciplinary researches and
applications between civil engineering and other disciplines, such as biology,
information, nano and social science and technology. The journal accepts only
original submissions in English. Online versions are available through
http://link.springer.com/journal/11709 and http://engineering.cae.cn/fsce.

Submission of Papers
Please submit your article via https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fsce.
Online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your
article details and uploading your files.

Duplicate/previous publication or submission

Manuscripts submitted to this journal must not be under simultaneous consideration
by any other publisher and should not have been published elsewhere in substantially
similar form. No part of a paper which has been published by Frontiers of Structural
and Civil Engineering may be reproduced or published elsewhere without the written
permission of the publisher.

Article Categories
The following categories of papers can be submitted to the journal:

 RESEARCH

 REVIEW

 CASE STUDY

Manuscript preparation
Manuscript Preparation:
All manuscripts should be written in English. Articles should be no more than seven journal pages.
All materials, including references, figure captions and tables, should be typed double-spaced on
only one side of white A4 paper with wide margin (at least 25 mm). Pages should be numbered
and font size should be 11 or 12 pt.

Cover letter

A covering letter must accompany each submission indicating the name, address, and
telephone number of the author to whom all correspondence is to be addressed. An
affiliation must be supplied for each author. Authors are also asked to provide the
names and contact information for four potential referees in their cover letter.
However, the journal is not obliged to use the suggested reviewers. Final selection of
reviewers will be determined by the editors.

Manuscript for research articles

Manuscripts should be in a Word format. The following components are required for
a complete manuscript: Title, Author(s), Author affiliation(s), Abstract, Keywords,
Nomenclature (when needed), Main text, References, Acknowledgements,
Appendices, Figure captions, Tables. Include page numbers on the document,
beginning with the title page as number 1. It will be preferred if line numbers are
included as well. There is no formal limit for the length of a paper, but the editors
may recommend condensation when appropriate.
Please use standard 10- or 12-point Times New Roman fonts.

Title. The title of the paper should be explicit, descriptive and as brief as possible –
no more than 20 words in length.

Integrated control strategies for railway vehicles with

independently-driven wheel motors

Running title. A short version of the paper title (up to 80 characters including
space).
Author names, (academic degrees) and affiliations.
Example:

Jinzhi FENG, Jun LI, R. M. Goodall

Corresponding author. The e-mail address of the corresponding author should be
given on the first page of the manuscript. In the case of multiple authors, one should
be designated as the corresponding author.
Abstract. A short abstract of up to 300 words written in one paragraph, clearly
indicating the object and scope of the paper as well as the results achieved, should
appear on the first page.
Keywords. Up to 6 words separated by commas.
Headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings should be used throughout
the text to divide the subject matter into its important, logical parts. Typical headings
include: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions,
Acknowledgments, Appendixes and References.

Tables.

Table requirements
Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and layout of the journal.
Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the
dimensions of a table.
If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two
or more tables.

Table 1 Table Title

sample 2/days 4/days 6/days
blank control 61.5 71.4 68.0
PLA 73.2 75.6 65.2
HA-PLA 54.4 78.6 62.4
Abbreviations. PLA: ; HA-PLA: .

1. Supply units of measure at the heads of the columns. Abbreviations that are used
only in a table should be defined in the footnotes to that table.
2. Should always use rows and columns to correlate two variables. Submitted
single-spaced and in the word processing software used. Do not embed tables as
graphic files, document objects, or pictures.
3. Submitted as three-line tables, that is, there are three horizontal lines: one under
the legend, one under the column heads, and one below the body. Vertical lines
are generally not used.
4. Label each table at the top with a Roman numeral followed by the table title.
Insert explanatory material and footnotes below the table. Designate footnotes
using lowercase superscript letters (a, b, c) reading horizontally across the table.
5. Unless needed, all the words within the tables should be in lowercases.
6. Must be sequentially numbered and called out in the text as, e.g. Table 1.
7. Each table should be typewritten on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables
should never be included in the text.

Figures.

Graphs should be practically self-explanatory. Readers should be able to understand

them at a glance. Dimensional drawings and diagrams should include only the
essential details and as little lettering as possible. They should present more of a
picture than a working drawing.
Figure requirements

1. Size: should be drawn in the size of they virtually appear.

2. Numbering and title: number all figures (graphs, charts, photographs, and
illustrations) in the order of their citation in the text and cited as, e.g. Fig. 1.
Include a title for each figure (a brief phrase, preferably no longer than 10 to 15
words). Use (a), (b), (c)… to give titles for subfigures if there are any.
3. Figure quality: should be sharp, noise-free, and of good contrast. All lettering
should be large enough to permit legible reduction. The figure quality should
meet the requirements as shown below:

images Line-
Figure category screen
color mono drawing
dpi 300 600 72 600

4. Color of figures: unless necessary, better drawn in black and white for
line-drawing; and grayscale for images.
5. Figure file formats and location in manuscript: should not be embedded in
word or LaTeX processing documents but rather submitted in TIFF, EPS or
CorelDraw file formats. Legends should appear, separate from the figures
themselves, where the figures should be located within the paper.
6. Maps: please use the authorized maps as the basis for map figure drawing. (Like
maps published by China Map Press, and the like.) Any maps drawn without an
authorized basis have to be submitted with the certificate from the Surveying and
Mapping management. All the maps should follow the publishing requirements
released by the Government.
7. Unless needed, all the words within the figures should be in lowercases.

Formulae and equations.

1. Formulae should be typewritten whenever possible.

2. It is extremely important that all mathematical symbols and letters used are
identified and listed and that the required style of appearance of such symbols is
clearly indicated, e.g., bold face, italics, script, outline, etc.
3. Subscripts and superscripts should be set off clearly.
4. Identify in the margin any symbols that might be confused with similar symbols.
5. The words Equation or Equations should appear in full at the beginning of
sentences but be abbreviated to Eq. or Eqs. elsewhere.
6. A nomenclature can be included (with the use of = signs) after the abstract if
there is a significant number of symbols in the paper.

Equations should be located separately from other lines if they are long or
complicated.

Abbreviations

Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Expand
all abbreviations at first mention in the text.

Footnotes

Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it will be possible
to incorporate the information in normal text.

If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers, and
kept as short as possible.

Units of measure

Laboratory values are expressed using conventional units of measure, with relevant
Système International (SI) conversion factors expressed secondarily (in parentheses)
only at first mention. In tables and figures, a conversion factor to SI should be
presented in the footnote or legend. The metric system is preferred for the expression
of length, area, mass, and volume. For more details, see the Units of Measure
conversion table (absent).

Acknowledgements
The Acknowledgements section is the general term for the list of sponsor and
financial support, contributions, credits, and other information included at the end of
the text of a manuscript but before the references. Conflicts of interest and financial
disclosures must be listed in this section. Authors should obtain written permission to
include the names of individuals in the Acknowledgements section.

Appendixes (if needed)

Appendix A
A1, A2, A3…
Appendix B
Appendix C…
Manuscript for review articles

Reviews give a general overview of a particular field, providing the reader with an
appreciation of the importance of the work, historical context, a summary of recent
developments, and a starting point in the specialist literature. Manuscripts should be
divided into appropriate sections, with an extensive list of references. In addition to
undergoing the same rigorous level of technical peer-review as Research papers,
Review articles will be critiqued based on the general impact of the field being
reviewed, the relevance of the field to experimental mechanics, preexisting reviews of
the field, and acknowledgement of the contributing author as a dominant figure in the
field. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that authors interested in submitting a
Review article correspond with the Editor prior to submission. General formatting text,
illustrations, and references are the same as outlined for research papers.

Citations and References

In-text citations must agree with the references in numbering. The references should
be presented completely and without mistakes, and should be the original publication.

Reference for journals

Hutton B. Product of fuzzy topological space. Topol & Appl, 1980, 11(1): 59―61
Payne D K, Sullivan M D, Massie M J. Women’s psychological reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol, 1996, 23(Suppl
2): 89―97

Reference for books

Gaydon A G, Wolfhard H G. Flames. 2nd ed. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd, 1960, 30―35
Norman I J, Redfern S J, eds. Mental Health Care for Elderly People. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1996

Reference for proceedings

Dmtriev V. Complete tables of the second rank constitutive tensors for linear homogeneous bianisotropic media
described by point magnetic groups of symmetry and some general properties of the media. In: Proceedings of IEEE
MTT-S IMOC’99. Berlin: Springer, 2000, 435―439
Cecil T E, Chern S S. Dupin submanifolds in Lie sphere geometry. In: Jiang B J, Peng C -K, Hou Z X, et al, eds.
Differential Geometry and Topology. Lect Notes in Math, Vol 1369. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1989, 1―44

The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic
documents. Consisting of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned
to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication, DOI is an ideal
medium for citing a document, particularly "Articles in press" because they have not
yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI
is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the Communications in
Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation): doi:10.1016/j.cnsns.2007.05.034

Notification
The corresponding author will be notified by the editors of the acceptance of article
and invited to supply an electronic version of the accepted text, if this is not already
available.

Copyright transfer
No article can be published unless accompanied by a signed Copyright Transfer
Statement, which ensures a transfer of copyright from author to publisher. A copy of
the Copyright Transfer Statement to be used will be provided with the letter of
acceptance of the manuscript. Authors are asked to scan and return by email or fax the
signed statement to the editorial office of Frontiers of Structural and Civil
Engineering at the Academic Publishing Division of the Higher Education Press.

Proofreading and production

Proofing

Proofs will be sent to the author and should be returned within 72 hours of receipt.
Authors should clarify any questions of the proof in a query file. No new materials
shall be inserted at the time of proofreading. Please note that authors are urged to
check their proofs carefully before return one all-inclusive e-mail or fax, since
subsequent additional corrections will not be possible.

Author Enquiries

For submission inquiries, tracking articles and any information please contact the
Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering office in Higher Education Press. All
correspondence for the journal should be sent to the following address. Please include
the manuscript dispatch number in all correspondences.

Academic Journal Publishing Division

Higher Education Press
Floor 15, Fusheng Building,
No. 4, Huixindongjie Str., Chaoyang Dist.
Beijing 100029, P. R. China
E-mail: heyx@hep.com.cn

Author Benefits
The articles enjoy a fast peer-review and production workflow and will be published
more quickly with the online first publishing on the basis of individual articles. The
submitted manuscripts will get polished in language by highly qualified editors before
typeset.

Copyright:
As the manuscript has been accepted, all authors should transfer the copyright of the
article, including that of the printing and on-line version, to the publisher.

Research Data Policy:

The journal encourages authors, where possible and applicable, to deposit data that
support the findings of their research in a public repository. Authors and editors who
do not have a preferred repository should consult Springer Nature’s list of repositories
and research data policy.
 List of Repositories
 Research Data Policy
General repositories - for all types of research data - such as Figshare and Dryad may
also be used. Datasets that are assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) by a data
repository may be cited in the reference list. Data citations should include the
minimum information recommended by DataCite: authors, title, publisher (repository
name), identifier.
 DataCite
Springer Nature provides a research data policy support service for authors and
editors, which can be contacted at researchdata@springernature.com.
This service provides advice on research data policy compliance and on finding
research data repositories. It is independent of journal, book and conference
proceedings editorial offices and does not advise on specific manuscripts.
 Helpdesk

Open Choice
Open Choice allows you to publish open access in this journal, making your
research more visible and accessible immediately on publication.
Article processing charges (APCs) vary by journal – view the full list

Copyright and license term – CC BY

Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains
with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article
under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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